Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Connective tissue disorders, Abscess, Education, CT-High Resolution, Thorax, Lung
Authors:
N. Pereira da Silva1, A. I. Aguiar2, J. A. Torres de Abreu Macedo1, F. Cruz1, P. Donato1; 1Coimbra/PT, 2Barcelos, Braga/PT
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3406
Background
Connective tissue diseases (CTD) are a heterogeneous set of idiopathic or autoimmune pathologies that can affect several organs,
often manifesting in thoracic structures such as the lungs,
mediastinum,
airways and pleura
CTDs that most commonly involve the thorax are Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA),
Sistemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE),
Progressive Systemic Sclerosis (PSS),
Polymyositis and Dermatomyositis (PM-DM) and Sjögren Syndrome (SS).
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension are the main causes of mortality and morbidity.
It is imperative that the radiologist be able to recognize the different associated patterns as the imaging spectrum of these alterations is very variable and may even overlap.
Treatment complications,
such as toxicity and infections,
may pose additional diagnostic challenges.
Imaging,
namely high-resolution computer tomography (HRCT) plays an important role in the diagnosis of these diseases.